[1] Shadow Chasers features strait-laced British anthropologist Jonathan MacKensie (played by Trevor Eve), who works for the fictional Georgetown Institute Paranormal Research Unit (PRU).
In the pilot, MacKensie's department head, Dr. Julianna Moorhouse (Nina Foch), withholds a research grant to force him into investigating a supposed "haunting" involving a teenage boy (Bobby Fite).
[2] He is paired with flamboyant reporter and popular author Edgar "Benny" Benedek (Dennis Dugan) to reduce the length of the investigation, over Moorhouse's objections; she does not want a sensationalist who writes for the supermarket tabloids to be associated with the Georgetown Institute.
To Dr. Moorhouse's irritation, Benny was often able to turn his experiences into best-selling popular books and appearances on the late night talk show circuit.
While heavily promoted during the network's mini-series North and South, the commercials proved to be prophetic,[clarification needed] in that the series drew small audiences, and was frequently pre-empted in some markets.